I got thinking on this topic the other night when I was headed out to an 80's themed party and dressed up as Marty McFly from Back To The Future II (I say II because I had some silver futuristic-looking sunglasses on my head.) I began to try and analyze why the trilogy has had such an impact on people of my age group. I realized that these movies are so awesome because so many teenagers are consumed by their social status. Look at all the other teen movies from the 80's, they're filled with scenes of nerds getting their pants pulled down by jocks and the ugly girls getting teased at prom. In these movies, the story is always a happy ending, but in real life, the nerds and ugly kids leave the theater and they are still what they were when they went in; the cheerleader and quarterback suddenly don't decide that they are looking for something more than physical beauty and jump into the outcasts' arms. Back To The Future provides an opportunity to completely erase who you were and what bad things happened to you when you were growing up. Instead of letting kids fantasize about someday rising out of their hell and marrying the prom queen, they could instead dream about proactively changing all the shit that has happened to them. That bully that makes fun of you? Don't hope someday that he'll get cancer, go BACK IN TIME and fuck his life up.
Remember the throngs of Dungeons & Dragons fans that suddenly exploded in number during the 80's? Coincidence? I think not. You can directly trace the popularity of D&D to Back To The Future. It's science. Kids weren't happy with watching movies that showed shit that might happen to them. They wanted to be in control. That's why video games are hot shit right now and Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books are being used as toilet paper by some homeless guy or to roll joints. Kids want control, they don't want to be told "look at what might or might not happen to you."
Some of you intellectuals out there might say something to me like "I saw Finding Neverland, and Peter Pan is a character that shows kids that they can escape. In that play/movie/porno, Peter Pan was a kid who had complete control over his life." To this I say, would you rather fly around in tights and live in a hovel with a bunch of fat kids or would you rather travel back/forward in time in a short-lived 80's sports car?
You sure are slacking on the updates Drew. How am I supposed to live vicariously through you when I don't know what is going on? Hope you have a good day!
ReplyDelete-Dawe
THE SIX KEGGER LOOMS IN THE DISTANCE! I was reading that little book in the book store and I think the Monstro is mentioned like 3 times as the HOOKUP utopia. Lets make this epic...
ReplyDeleteLong live the Funniness!
-D